A testimony written by Andie, a volunteer that helped distribute gifts from the Giving Tree on Christmas Eve:
Christmas Eve 2011 is a day I will forever remember, a day when I witnessed God’s love, holy spirit and mercy. Being the first year to volunteer with the Christmas present delivery to the homeless, I wasn’t sure what to expect or how I was specifically going to impact others. My goal was to share the love of God and just spend time praying, talking, and getting to know new people, but what I didn’t expect was the invaluable impact the people were going to have on me.
When I first arrived at Flood, bright and early Christmas Eve morning, I was so happy to see all the other people who took the time to come out and volunteer. Everyone bundled up, with coffee in hand, the room was filled with wrapped gifts and handmade cards. What a beautiful notion to hand make cards, written to specific people with heartfelt messages of love, encouragement and support. It was awesome to see everyone’s contributions to the Christmas delivery, whether it was someone’s physical presence that day, making a card, buying a gift, wrapping a gift, or buying coffee and muffins, everyone helped out in their own individual way that contributed to God’s bigger picture. After coordinating which group of volunteers were going where downtown, everyone loaded up their cars and headed out.
My group went to 15th & G St. downtown; we were meeting a smaller group of people whom Flood Love has been meeting with every Monday for the past couple years. For the next couple hours, we spent time praying, talking and just spending quality time with our friends. At one point, Jessica from the Flood brought out her acoustic guitar and started playing and singing songs of worship, the time together with everyone felt perfect. Getting to know the people was nothing short of amazing. Hearing their stories of hardship, triumph, and hardship again was both sad and encouraging. It was an honor to be able to pray for them, asking God for help with their health, employment, comfort and strength. Aside from their current situation living on the streets, I discovered our new friends were just like you and me. The negative stigma of “homeless people” for the majority, is so far off and really invites God’s love and understanding to break through. After passing out coffee and muffins to everyone around, we walked to a nearby Starbucks where we were looking for our friend John who frequents the coffeehouse. We opened the door and Jessica said, “Hi, John!” I looked around and saw no one that could even resemble a homeless man. I followed Jessica and there was John, sitting at a table with khaki shorts and a collared shirt, nicely trimmed and combed hair, reading a newspaper. Never in a million years would I think this man had spent the night on the cold concrete on the streets of downtown. We presented him with his gift, a pair of wool socks, and we chit chatted for 20 minutes about his life and his efforts in finding a job. I recently heard that members of the Flood helped him pay off a book debt that he needed to pay in order to go back to school, I am so excited for him and his future educational journey. By this time, it was time to head back to the Flood. I was sad to go but filled with happiness and thankfulness for what God had shown me.
In the end, the new friends I met that Christmas Eve day helped and blessed my life more than I think I did theirs. They are such an inspiration and a reminder of how blessed we are in our everyday lives. Our shallow quarrels with friends or problems at work or nothing compared to their everyday issues. I thank God for providing me with the opportunity to meet and spend time with our new friends, I will forever remember them and the positive impact they made on my life.
